The 2018 schedule for the Radford women’s lacrosse team will feature 17 games including a program-record 10 at home in Cupp Stadium, Head Coach Haley Marvine announced Tuesday afternoon.
“As we prepared for our third season, we knew in order to improve on last year we had to make our schedule tougher,” noted Marvine. “We added some very strong non-conference opponents that will challenge our team and prepare them to make a big jump in the Big South in April.”
The Highlanders will kick off their season on Saturday, Feb. 17 when they travel north to take on St. Francis (Pa.). The team will then return to Radford for its home opener against Robert Morris on Friday, Feb. 23.
With March comes to busiest month of the year for Radford. First, they’ll spend spring break in New York to go head-to-head with LIU Brooklyn on Saturday, March 3rd and Columbia on Tuesday, March 6th. After that, it’s back to Cupp Stadium for a six-game home stand.
Butler comes to town on Saturday, March 10, Colgate visits Radford on Tuesday, March 13 and George Washington takes its chances against the Highlanders on Tuesday, March 20.
Part two of the home stand presents contests against Mount St. Mary’s on Saturday, March 24, UC Davis on Monday, March 26 and Fresno State on Thursday, March 29.
The beginning of conference play rounds out the month of March as Radford travels to High Point for its first Big South action on March 31.
The 2018 slate continues into April with an away matchup at Longwood on Wednesday the 4th before the Highlanders welcome Winthrop to the NRV on Saturday, April 7. Radford’s finally road swing takes place on Wednesday, April 11 and Saturday, April 14 when the team goes to Gardner-Webb and Campbell.
Regular season competition comes to comes to a close with back-to-back home games on Wednesday, April 18 against Liberty and Saturday, April 21 versus Presbyterian.
At the end of April, the top six teams in the standings will advance to the Big South Tournament which begins on Saturday, April 29. The semifinals are scheduled for Wednesday, May 4 with a champion to be crowned on Friday, May 6.
“Our team is ready to make this jump and playing strong teams will only better prepare them for conference play,” continued Marvine. “We’re extremely excited to be moving in this direction and welcome the opportunity to play such great teams.”
Of those 17 games, the Highlanders will go up against seven teams they’ve never seen before: Robert Morris, Columbia, Butler, Colgate, George Washington, UC Davis and Fresno State.
St. Francis has topped Radford in each of the last two seasons and Mount St. Mary’s got the better of the Highlanders last year, but a 16-10 win over LIU Brooklyn gives Radford the advantage in that series.
–RU Athletics
